Motorcycle Trackdays for Virgins: A UK Guide [Illustrated] [Paperback]

If riding a bike is fun then riding it on the track is infinitely more! But to get the most out of a day on the track you need to know what to expect and how to cope with what can be a confusing but absolutely fantastic day out. This book is aimed at the newcomer to track days and takes him or her through the basics in a light hearted but thorough way. There is plenty of detail on how to get cornering speeds up, what s safe and what s not, the do and don t s of the track and of course a complete guide to all the turns on all the tracks and the companies that run the trackdays. Absolutely fascinating and a great guide for anyone contemplating taking a bike on a racetrack whether it a modern powerful sports bike, a small lightweight machine or even a classic! Contents: Introduction; Preparation; Trackday organizers; Rules and Regulations; On the day; On the track; Riding on the track; Advanced techniques; When it all goes wrong; Circuit guide to Thruxton, Cstle Combe, Brands Hatch, Lydden, Rockingham, Silverstone, Donington Park, Mallory Park, Snetterton, CAdwell Park, Oulton Park, Knockhill; Checklist; Trackday companies.

I wrote this book because I saw there was a gap - there are plenty of people who want to try trackdays for all sorts of reasons, but aren't looking to go racing. Until now, all the books about track riding were focussed on going faster and being more competitive rather than having fun and getting the most out of your day. So I decided to fix that.

I don't take anything terribly seriously, least of all things I really enjoy, so although it does have a serious side, this isn't a terribly earnest book. But hopefully you'll find it entertaining as well as informative.

If so, please feel free to tell your friends. If not then tell me and I'll try to do better next time...

Thanks for your interest.

Simon Bradley is a well known motorcycle journalist and editor of MotorbikesToday, the largest online bike magazine in Europe. He raced at club and then international level until 1986. Since then Simon has instructed on trackdays all over the UK and at the Nurburgring, ridden just about every type of bike at just about every circuit in the country and still manages to averages about 50,000 road miles a year!

How many times has the subject of your bike's performance come up in conversation, especially with non-bikers, only to have them shaking their heads and dismissing its remarkable abilities and value with a simple statement? "But the speed limit is seventy." Or, more telling, "But you can't possibly use that sort of performance on the road..." The trouble is, they've actually got a point, and we all know it. I mean, when you've got the latest and greatest race replica you can easily end up in jail - or worse - just by using its full potential in the first couple of gears. Even the most prosaic of modern bikes will comfortably break the speed limit as well as demolishing all but the most expensive supercars in a straight drag off the lights.

Now there's no way that we are going to break our addiction to bikes which are faster and better handling than we will ever be able to exploit. It's embedded in our national motorcycling psyche, something which is an intrinsic part of the bike scene in the UK. And with the increasingly draconian measures we are seeing used to enforce speed limits, which themselves are being reduced, seemingly arbitrarily, across the country, we need an outlet.

Happily, some time in the mid eighties the idea of renting racetracks out for the four days a week that they weren't doing anything started to gain popularity, both with the circuit owners who saw a way of covering some more of their fixed costs and with riders who saw a way of either emulating their heroes on track or simply letting off steam and having a lot of fun. Trackday companies appeared overnight, arranging public sessions on circuits across the land with varying degrees of professionalism. And an industry was born.